


Down The Rabbit Hole

by WilhelmAres



Series: They Always Come Back, Not You [1]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: FNAF 3 - Freeform, Gen, Henry Destroys The Animatronics, Spring Bonnie - Freeform, springlock suit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22441732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WilhelmAres/pseuds/WilhelmAres
Summary: Henry hoped a second death would free the children's souls. Henry is wrong.
Series: They Always Come Back, Not You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639768
Kudos: 10





	Down The Rabbit Hole

Henry always hated the springlock suits. Too creepy, too dangerous, too simple AI. Still, he checks the locks on the Bonnie suit, rusted after all these years. Still as durable as ever, he noticed, as though that says anything about his safety. He puts on the long-faded costume, and leaves the safe room. Chica looks at the rabbit suit, and walks away with no concern on the new animatronic. Henry walks into the main room, not really able to call it a party room, and finds Pirate Cove.

Or, what was left of it. The years wilted and faded all the decorations, the curtains have fallen to tattered rags on the ground, and the floorboards under the tile have warped under Foxy's weight to the point they're liable to give way. Henry beckons for the 'fox', long since rotted away to large patches of orange suit on a rusted frame, to come closer. He motions for Foxy to follow him, and leads the bot to Parts and Service. Well, the room that used to be Parts and Service. Henry looked at the looted room, apparently stripped during the day times by the most desperate or foolish of mankind. By the smell, some took to the cover of night to get scrap metal, and he had the definite impression not to look in the abandoned suits that remained. Instead, he starts his work by removing Foxy's, well, _Foxy._

With the 'skin' removed, Henry found it surprisingly easy to remove the attachable jaw. He figured the rust would have sealed it on, but know he thinks if he just waited until the next downpour, the next humidity spike, the next cold front, the jaw would have just fell off into the mask. He presses a latch on the endoskull, but it's rusted to obsolescence. Realizing he cannot get to the CPU and kill the 'brain', he tells Foxy to turn around. He removes its remaining torso suit, and pries off a small panel in between the anchors for the arms. A large battery, covered in shavings and rot, so weak he wonders how it could have powered the animatronic's motors, let alone CPU even if at full power. Risking too much for too little, Henry chucks it at the wall and loves it crumbling in on itself and shattering on the floor. One threat down, three to go before he can start full disassembly.

He leaves Parts and Services and notices none of the animatronics are around. He takes a moment to think of the good times. He takes a moment to think of the better times. He thinks of the 'what could have beens' that didn't come to pass, of his daughter's laugh, of bringing his two little ones to work and having them smile, of birthdays celebrated with friends; he thinks of the 'should not have beens' that did, the blood on the sidewalk, the flesh in the metal, the guards' deaths. He steadies himself with thoughts of what will be, of destroyed vessels and freed souls, of damnation for the vile creature who did this to all these people.

Henry walks into the kitchen, and sees a rat. He is not comforted by his insistence that it is a rat, knows it is a lie. He does not know the truth, but you need not the truth to know a lie. Chica is there, staring at him. He beckons it to follow, and with its trust, or simple obedience, Chica is lead to Parts and Service. Somehow, its suit, although not pristine, stayed on significantly better than Foxy's. Doesn't mean he won't remove it himself. After fiddling with the rusted anchor points that keep the headpiece on the endoskull until the springlocks neared failing twice, he removed the bird's bead and 'skin'. Much like with Foxy, he pushed the release latch, but this time the endoskull split and showed the CPU. He took the piece and dropped it on the floor; stamping it to bits was still risky, but helpful. Relieved at 'killing' a second animatronic, Henry started to walk to the main room once more.

Then he realized it wasn't enough. It lunging forward startled him enough that a springlock in his left arm actually came undone, held back by the arm itself. The only reason anyone ever survived the suit failures-- and there were many, both survivors and failures-- was immediate medical care. Here, now? The filthy machinery would impale and paralyze him, bleeding to death, alone, in a hellhole. He will not let that happen. Avoiding the blind, rampaging animatronic, Henry ducked behind Foxy and started securing the springlock. He was relieved when it was made easer by Chica running into the Party Room, and promptly did it properly. He followed it, planning with no real plan a way to calm Chica, and didn't need a plan anyway.

The floorboards in Pirate Cove didn't take the loss of Foxy well, having supported it stationary for a decade with no relief. Chica's different weight and rapid movement caved them in, and the animatronic collapsed into bent limbs and torn costume. He approached carefully, fully acknowledging he's pretty much walking on a minefield covered in beartraps. 'What's covered in beartraps, the minefield or me' he ponders the linguistic mistake of the existence English, to distract him from the paralyzing stress of wearing a beartrap suit on rotten planks. He reaches down and detaches the suit's back, and then the panel. The battery is even worse, barely lodged in and _scorched_ with an electrical fire. The wires were frayed, and he wonders if it was even actually working. It must have, because Chica powered down without it.

Henry looked down at his 'kill', and saw horror. The rat returned, even clearer, even less believable as a large rat, with its crying face and spindly limbs. It crawled under the floorboards, and disappeared, and left behind a tune echoing underground. Retreating, he looked for Freddy or Bonnie, either one is next. Freddy was easier to find, standing just inside one of the bathroom doors. He made his way around the ruined tables, and lured the child's 'new' body into Parts and Service.

The face was easy to remove, most locks long since disintegrated to weather and leaks. The release was rusted to Hell, but a solid press opened the endoskull and exposed the CPU. Henry does not think of himself as stupid, and so he instructs Freddy to turn around. The main suit is much tougher to remove, but he manages without killing himself. The panel came off during the removal, and Henry removed the battery. This time, it was corroded to the point he could actually see inside, and he doesn't think this silvery liquid is in most batteries, and doesn't think a ruined battery like this could power a flashlight, let alone an animatronic.

Discarding the battery in it's own spilled contents and crushing the CPU in his own hand, Henry searched for Bonnie. He walks down the West Hall, coming across a sealed steel door. 'So they did put the security door in. Guess the counterbalance got cut off'. He checks the supply closet, and a rancid odor of ancient chemicals and mold pushes him out. The bile in his throat burned, but he swallowed it down. He walks to the East Hall, and sees Bonnie walk into the security office.

Rushing as fast as he can to the door, he stops Bonnie and decides 'screw it'. Henry grabs the mask and realizes that it might not have been put on properly all those years ago. It came off like it was just resting on the endoskull, with barely any anchors attached. The release latch was surprisingly preserved, but the mechanism _wasn't_. The head barely opened, and Bonnie's eyes started staring at him. He instructed it to turn around, and Bonnie did not. Henry walked around, back to the fallen door, and started taking off the costume. The fursuit gave way in front of the panel, and it was simple to remove the battery. Rusted, corroded, singed, it showed there's absolutely no way these animatronics were powered by anything less than a human soul.

Relieved at the loss of threatening animatronics, Henry ignores the 'rat' in the air ducts above him and 'Pop Goes The Weasel' echoes throughout the office. A crying mask of a puppet leaps from the ceiling and lands on Henry's facemask. As the springlocks fails, Henry screams and writhes in pain. As he writhes, he triggers the remaining locks, and he spasms into crushing the puppet.

* * *

Henry wakes up, painful breath in his mouth and faint beating in his chest. He sees the ghosts he freed, tries to go to them. He sees the door came down during the attack. He sees the Children not leaving. He stops feeling his heartbeat, stops feeling his breath. He gets up, feels like a puppet holding it's own strings. 

Springtrap jumps up and pounds on the door, he knows he has failed his goal. He knows Afton is still out there, he knows he accomplished nothing in death except getting his soul stuck in a place of the past.


End file.
